Earlier this year the Postgraduate book students made the long
trek up to London for a four-day (over two weekends) workshop on
medieval book structures. The workshop was led by Juergen
Vervoorst, Head of Collections Care at the National Archives UK;
one weekend was spent on the Carolingian binding and the other on a
Gothic binding. We had an amazing time, but, as you can imagine
(and even if you can't), this was a lot do in such a short amount
of time. Therefore, we had to finish the bindings without the
reassuring supervision of Juergen once we were back among the
sheep. The only problem was that none of us could remember how to
do the Carolingian endband. We tried looking it up and all we could
find was one confusing diagram in The Archaeology of Medieval
Bookbinding. That being the case, I sat down with my model
and a picture of Juergen's endband and twenty minutes later had it
figured out.

Three weeks later, when I was asked to demonstrate it to
someone, I realised that once again I'd forgotten how it was done.
So, I sat down with a new model and ten minutes later I knew what I
was doing. This time I decided to write everything done, to avoid
future frustrations.

The following is a step-by-step tutorial describing the making
of the 'herringbone' endband along with pictures of each step.
There is a video at the end showing the entire process.

How to:

Once you have sewn your gatherings and boards together, pasted
on the leather spine lining, and added the loop of thread for the
core, it is time to sew this 'herringbone' style endband. The
sewing goes down into each section, which will allow the finished
book to lay flat while giving the spine a gentle arch. This is a
structural, but not integral endband.

Step 1: (Optional, but strongly recommended)
Pre-prick the holes in the leather with the sewing needle or an
awl. This will make the whole process faster and make life
simpler.

The 1st hole needs to be below the kettle stitch of the 1st
gathering (BLUE)
Pierce the leather through each kettle stitch (YELLOW)
Pierce the leather above the centre of each gathering (GREEN)

Step 4: Loop behind and pass the needle under
both of the cores, pulling the thread gently into place. Make sure
the 1st and 2nd cores hold their positions and do not switch
places. Do not pull the working thread too tight, as you want the
endband to have as much volume as possible. It is this volume which
will give the packed look you are trying to achieve.

Step 5: Pass the needle over the 1st core and
down between the cores, into the section. Make sure it stays behind
the working thread from Steps 3-4. This was crucial for not getting
gaps between the herringbone on the 2nd core. I do not think this
would be necessary on books with thin sections (it wasn't for my
workshop model), but for my model with chunky sections it was.

Finishing: Tie off on the spine after pulling
the working thread through the last kettle stitch. Or, if you are
planning on using perimeter sewing to keep the stubs of the spine
lining and covering leather together, you can keep the working
thread in place and use that to stitch the two leather layers.

Have patience and good luck!

Repeat Steps 7-10 for each of the gatherings of the bookblock,
always passing the needle behind the working thread from the
previous section.